Discussion -- March 2015 75-word Writing Challenge

Anne Martin said:
My point was that while I confirmed a guess on a very obscure reference that had no bearing on the story, others "pastiche" the existing sci-fi canon at will, and that provides a load of backstory and characterization not otherwise possible in a 75-word entry. And Hex, forgive me, but that wasn't strictly in the posted rules, as Boneman kindly agreed when I replied to his message. I checked the rules before I provided that confirmation. He said that he would make sure it was added, but last time I looked, it hadn't been. In the past, when I've seen speculation or misinterpretation of my entries, I remained silent, but this was about as trivial as it comes.

I will continue to vote for only those stories that use their own characters (unless the theme suggests otherwise, like at Christmas), and as I have said before, I will vote for the entries that best reflect the theme and genre (not just my favorite story). Otherwise, why specify the theme and genre in the first place?
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Just to get Boneman out of this, I think it was probably HareBrain who discussed this with you (I get them confused as well -- I think it's the two part names).

It does say this in the first post on the Challenges thread:

"We invite (and indeed hope for) lively discussion and speculation about the stories as they are posted,
so long as it doesn't involve the author explaining the plot."

but a request not to discuss our own stories can also be put into the rules. It's really hard to know how significant a piece of information is, and my approach has always been to avoid commenting at all, just in case.

As we said before, you're really welcome to post that piece of information after voting finishes.

I don't think we have any rules about not using pastiches or basing stories on existing fairy tales etc, both of which are a frequently successful strategy as they do tend to give an additional richness to the back story. Of course, whether these stories personally please you is wholly up to you.

I think we're in danger of clogging up the Discussion thread, so if you'd like to continue this, we could do it by PM.
 
Thanks to TDZ, Ashleyne, Martin and Crystal for all the listings! I'm thrilled to have had so many mentions in a genre that really doesn't come easily to me. :)

And... I just saw that I have a Chrispy vote! Lovely. Thank you Chris.
 
Anne Martin said:
My point was that while I confirmed a guess on a very obscure reference that had no bearing on the story, others "pastiche" the existing sci-fi canon at will, and that provides a load of backstory and characterization not otherwise possible in a 75-word entry. And Hex, forgive me, but that wasn't strictly in the posted rules, as Boneman kindly agreed when I replied to his message. I checked the rules before I provided that confirmation. He said that he would make sure it was added, but last time I looked, it hadn't been. In the past, when I've seen speculation or misinterpretation of my entries, I remained silent, but this was about as trivial as it comes.

I will continue to vote for only those stories that use their own characters (unless the theme suggests otherwise, like at Christmas), and as I have said before, I will vote for the entries that best reflect the theme and genre (not just my favorite story). Otherwise, why specify the theme and genre in the first place?
Click to expand...

I actually read your post when it went up and I felt it went beyond an obscure reference, sorry, and into explaining the story. Had it stayed up I planned to post to that effect and ask for a clarification as it is hard to know where the line is. I'm sorry if that upsets you but my memory of the time was that it went further than normal. In my understanding there is something in the challenge thread about discussing but not explaining...?

Edit - sorry, Hex got there first. Bah.
 
Shortlist and faves*

Ashleyne. B. Watts - for the Lovecraftian super-Midwife
Victoria Silverwolf - for an exceptional opening 2 lines, and for catering to my hatred of chess.
Mr Orange - spinning a whole word in what seems like far more than 75 words
alchemist* - It’s tragic to think that in the future the simple annoying things will still be bothering us.
Ursa* - can’t let the King of Puns go by without a mention, can I? Certainly not when it;s crammed with so many gags.
johnnyjet - love the idea of such a smart sword - er- rod.
TJ* - The image of a Dominar as a Countess is genius. Can you start this franchise, please?

which leaves the vote ...

Harebrain - for smartipantness with a beautifully simple concept. When I read this, I felt like not entering anymore. It was exactly the kind of physics-iness and smartipantsness I wanted to achieve.

Galactic-wide thanks for the votes to Moonbat, Cascade, TDZ and to serendipity for the stealth.

Glad you like the title Springs - it was a cheap shot to try and get our illustrious founder to vote for me. :)

My thanks to telford for the Hon Mention, Cat’s Cradle for the shortlisting, sancho (and thanks for the compliment)

Thanks to DH Jones, Perp and Victoria for your usual sterling efforts in the review department. You three (and Starbeast when he has time) make this challenge so much more than simply a contest :)

pH
 
Eek! For some reason I was convinced today was the 27th, so I thought I had another day of mulling things over.

Anyway, being pernickity, I had to exclude some entries from the voting as not being comedic space opera, as I defined it (narrowly, as usual), but that still left a goodly few tickling my funny bone, and I was particularly delighted at the number of very good punning titles, too!

My shortlist:

alchemist -- The Penultimate Countdown
HareBrain -- Undelivered Male
Hex -- Tentaclefest 'tastrophe
mosaix -- Set Phasers to Stunning
telford -- The Kleenex Maneuver
TheDustyZebra -- A Solo Composition

Some too-ing and fro-ing (especially over Hex's, since a trouser suit from Debenhams is comedic in its own right...) but my vote goes to TDZ and Hanlet. She nearly got the Best Title Award, too, but she was just edged out by mosaix's stunner, which gives me the giggles every time I see it.

Genre-bending thanks for the shortlistings DGJ and CC, and for the fave Phyrebrat!
 
As you might expect, a funny thing -- well, a number of funny things -- happened on the way to picking a winner, so here are the results of the Ursa jury:


Honourable Mentions:
  • Where No Man Wanted To Go Before by Perpetual Man
  • Fate of the ESS Vortludo by Mr Orange
  • The Penultimate Countdown by Alchemist
  • The Epic Adventures of Art and Cal by johnnyjet
Runners Up:
  • The Hero by Mr Tywin
  • Got that sinking feeling by crystal haven
  • The Next Window? by David Doherty-Jebb
Winner:
  • Don't Save the Cat. by Phyrebrat

(In the above, each category is ordered by time of posting.)
 
Wow! :) Unbelievable! My wife and I were watching The Shining...and I checked the voting throughout...I was sure that Phyrebrat or alchemist would pass me by, and take the victory (their stories--so many stories--were truly wonderful this month). And then somehow, I won. Is it silly to say that I am very excited? :) And certainly very grateful for the votes and the mentions. Wow! :)

Thank you Ursa and mosaix for the congrats! And I will try to come up with an interesting genre/theme combo for next month (there's the 300 worder too, and a 100 worder later in the month, over in the Workshop). Right now it is 2:13am in Finland, and I must get to bed. Wow!
 
Congratulations, CC! Nicely done! :D

I was not looking forward to a tie-breaker, since you were a very close second when I voted for Phyrebrat.
 
Many congratulations to Cat's Cradle for a hard-fought victory!

Honor must also be done to alchemist and Phyrebrat for sharing a very close second place. Well done!

For whatever it might be worth, my own offering was based on the fact that I could not hope to compete with those here who are masters of puns, farce, and parody. I could only hope to offer something a bit different, in what I hope was a lightly satiric drawing room comedy. Many thanks to those who thought it worth a mention.
 
After running ragged the last 3 days, I thought okay, I'll go vote now.... but .... it's already past. Sorry guys. But congratulations to Cat's Cradle. I also thought a lot of the stories of alchemist and Phyrebrat.
 
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